Snorkelling around Maenporth

A few days ago I headed down to the coast near Falmouth, with the hope of finding suitable conditions to head out snorkelling. The weather over the last few weeks has been a bit mixed, leading to fairly murky water for the most part, so to cycle up to Maenporth and find a flat calm sea and superb clear waters was great. I was in a bit of a rush to get in the sea, as I only made it down after a two o'clock lecture...the sun as already getting lower in the sky, so opportunities for photography was diminishing too!

Thankfully I was in the cool water within a short while, slipping out of the shallows and into the more biodiverse depths of the rocky coastline. I really enjoy snorkelling among the kelp forests and peering down to see what interesting sights appear from amongst the mass of waving algae. The water was much clearer once I had passed out of the surf zone, and exploring my way in and around the various rocky channels and hidden inlets revealed a wealth of wildlife to observe...

Spiny Starfish, ranging in colour from a deep blue to bright white with brown markings, were scattered amongst the rocks- if you watched them for a little while, you could see the very slowly making progress across the seafloor. Seaweeds of many different species were the hiding places of an interesting variety of fish, from the bulky Ballan Wrasse, the more colourful Corkwing Wrasse, and also a handful of bright green little fish, which I haven't identified as yet. One of the fish species I really like seeing if the Common Blenny- these characterful little rock-dwellers are very well camouflaged, and rest atop barnacle-covered rocks closer to the surface. It is quite fun to approach and watch their reactions as you invade their territory in an attempt to photograph them.

Every now and then I would come across a little colony of Blue-rayed Limpets, all clustered together at the bases of Kelp fronds- although they don't look like much from a distance, you can see their fantastic electric-blue dorsal stripes when taking a closer look. Perched sedentary on the edges of rocks and hiding amongst the kelp were the occasional Snakelocks Anemone, tentacles waving in the gentle swell. Clinging to the rocks closer to the surface were Dog Whelks, Limpets, Winkles, the pretty Common Topshells and Razor Clams.

 One of the brighter variants of the Spiny Starfish (Marthasterias glacialis) with a Breadcrump Sponge (Halichondria panicea)

Blue-rayed Limpets (Patella pellucida) clumped together in a cool little cluster on the stipe of kelp. These herbivorous species much their way through the kelp using their radula (teeth), working their way down the stipe and eventually loosening the holdfast and resulting in the Kelp's uprooting

 Common Blennies trying to remain hidden, although their inquisitive nature often results in them coming right up to the camera and investigating the new intruder

 Snakelocks Anemone- some of these cnidarians often have a greener hue, with purple tips where symbiotic algae photosynthesise and contribute energy to the anemone

Common Topshell

Exploring the rockpools of Falmouth

Yesterday afternoon saw most of the bioscience students take to the coastal shores of Gylly Beach, on the western side of Pendennis Point. The reason? A rockpooling extravaganza. The low tide early afternoon exposed a large area of the shore, which revealed a rich and diverse intertidal zone, full of different seaweeds, crustaceans, fish, molluscs and much more. It was a fun session, although Rachel, Will and I discovered an even greater amount of shore life on the sheltered side of Pendennis Point, just prior to the rockpooling session. Here, almost every rock harboured a fascinating selection of species, the highlight of which has to go to the 'Cornish Suckers' (!). More about them in a minute...
It was cool to compare the relative abundance and species composition to that of the rich coastline of Bardsey; I haven't managed to take to the sea and do any snorkelling here as yet, but it looks like it would be very productive when I do manage to get around to it!

Here are some of the highlights of the rockpooling. All images are taken with the Lumix FT-5

This curious creature is the Cornish Sucker, or Lepadogaster lepadogaster for short. Apparently, this species is part of the clingfish family, in which the pelvic fins are modified to form a sucker on the underside, which it uses to clamp onto rocks along the intertidal zone. They feed on a variety of invertebrate prey, and are said to live for four years

There were a few anemones to look at along in the rock pools, including the smart Snakelocks Anemone above. The lower image shows one that we saw yesterday, with the very green tentacles and purplish tips, whereas the top image is of a much larger, greyer one that I photographed off Bardsey last week.

We thought this was a strawberry at first! It turns out that Beadlet Anemones (Actina equina) come in a couple of different forms, this being the 'strawberry' form

One of the most common species of seaweed within the rockpools was this purplish Coral Weed (Coralina officinalis). The individual fronds of this seaweed are made up of interlinking rigid sections held together by flexible joints. 

The most common species of crab we encountered was the Common Shore Crab- the one above is perhaps the largest we disovered

This is a small Velvet Swimming Crab, with its unusually-shaped hind legs that are adapted to enable the crustacean to 'swim' through the water at rather quick speeds!

This was our favourite crustacean- the small Hairy Porcelain Crabs, which clung like limpets to the undersides of many of the rocks along the shoreline. 

It was nice to find a single one of these beauties: the Blue-rayed Limpit. I am familiar with these back on Bardsey, encountering many along the kelp fronds exposed at low tide, but I haven't managed to get any images before now. They are very small

 Common Prawns (Palaemon serratus) were very common as the tide began rising, lurking in the lower areas of the pools

 A cute little starfish species we came across, called the Cushion Star (Asterina gibbosa)

A Straight-nosed Pipefish 

A rockpool landscape to finish

Please correct any mis-IDs!